Understanding quaternions and the Dirac belt trick

DOI10.1088/0143-0807/31/3/004zbMATH Open1189.81124arXiv1001.1778OpenAlexW3105495476MaRDI QIDQ3566477FDOQ3566477

Authors: Mark Staley 

Publication date: 8 June 2010

Published in: European Journal of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The Dirac belt trick is often employed in physics classrooms to show that a $2pi$ rotation is not topologically equivalent to the absence of rotation whereas a $4pi$ rotation is, mirroring a key property of quaternions and their isomorphic cousins, spinors. The belt trick can leave the student wondering if a real understanding of quaternions and spinors has been achieved, or if the trick is just an amusing analogy. The goal of this paper is to demystify the belt trick and to show that it implies an underlying emph{four-dimensional} parameter space for rotations that is simply connected. An investigation into the geometry of this four-dimensional space leads directly to the system of quaternions, and to an interpretation of three-dimensional vectors as the generators of rotations in this larger four-dimensional world. The paper also shows why quaternions are the natural extension of complex numbers to four dimensions. The level of the paper is suitable for undergraduate students of physics.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1001.1778

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Finite-dimensional groups and algebras motivated by physics and their representations (81R05) Quantum stochastic calculus (81S25)

Cited In (6)

• A haptic model for the quantum phase of fermions and bosons in Hilbert space based on knot theory
• Knots and entanglement
• The phenomenon of half-integer spin, quaternions, and Pauli matrices
• The spinor linkage – a mechanical implementation of the plate trick
• Spherical winding and helicity
• The supergeometric algebra: the square root of the geometric algebra

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